FEATURE
DAINESE D-AIR
P64
HOW DOES IT WORK?
There are three main crashes in motor-
cycle road racing--the highside, the low-
side with a tumble, and a lowside with
sliding. The D-Air suit is smart enough
to deploy only in the first two of these
events via information it receives from
not just the seven sensors but also the
This Cool Gas Canister triggers at room
temperature and doesn't require a hot
explosion to fill the airbag like in many car
systems.
The D-Air began develop-
ment way back in 2000,
with the first human tests
conducted in 2006. By
that stage the company
felt the technology was
safe enough to be ex-
perimented in racing, and
those with good racing
memories will recall 125cc
racer Marco Simoncelli
deploying his airbag when
he tumbled out of the 2007
Valencia Grand Prix, and
Jorge Lorenzo's first jump
into the pond at Jerez in
2010 when the airbag de-
ployed as he hit the water,
causing obvious issues…
D-Air Street tests start-
ed the following year in
2008, with the company
debuting the technology
to the European market in
2012 (the D-Air Street was
still not yet available to the
American market).
By 2014, Dainese had
D-AIR HISTORY
Jorge Lorenzo found
out the the hardway that
perhaps a canonball into
the pond at Jerez post-race
win was not a good idea.
paired with Ducati to
make the first motorcycle
(Multistrada) that fully
integrated with an airbag
suit, and this year at the
Italian MotoGP, Dainese
released the D-Air Armor,
an undersuit that could be
used with racing suits that
were not manufactured
by Dainese. This suit's
back protector houses the
entire protection system-
-electronics , gas gen-
erator, wiring, battery and
GPS--and means riders
that aren't wearing Dai-
nese D-Air suits can still
get airbag protection. This
suit is not yet available in
the U.S., but Dainese is
hoping to bring it to mar-
ket in the near future.
